Some reports said that they closed down Washington with their protest. Reports are saying anywhere from 100,000 to 2 million people showed up yesterday. Even if it was only 100,000, that is a huge deal. It slaps Obama's leadership right in the butt.
Funny how many of the news outlets are not saying much about the biggest conservative protest ever on the Hill. Maybe it's because the MSM closes down during the weekend and doesn't have the staff to actually cover events. That's the power of blogs. One guy and his kid can give a better picture of what today was like than 100 reporters.
My new favorite American blog, has the American prospective of what is going on down south of us.
Washington D.C. Tea Party Express a HUGE Success!
Huge success? You sure wouldn't know it from the other media outlets. I thought America was different from Canada, I thought their media was less biased than our taxpayer funded CBC and our out to lunch CTV. Sadly it seems not to be true. That's why the people came out in massive numbers to protest in Washington. The media can try to hide the fact by refusing to cover the event, but a grassroots movement will only grow because the media refuses to carry the message. When Pelosi calls average Americans "nazis" and "astroturfers", she just makes them mad. Yet the lefties defend her and make Palin the bad girl.
The media can't adjust to the fact that the internet is immediate, with facebook and youtube, they can not distort the facts anymore. They look like idiots saying that thousands attended, when anyone watching online could see that it was more like 100,000 to 200,000 people.
Freedom?
It's worth fighting for! Good on all the people who showed up on 9/12 to support freedom.
11 comments:
I watched Obama's presentation the other night on reforming the health care system. His proposals did not sound radical. I thought his proposals were relatively moderate. He was NOT proposing to abolish private insurance or the private health care system. He only wants to make some changes to help the tens of millions who have no health care. So it is hard to see what these people are protesting for. They are claiming it is an assault on freedom. What freedom is threatened? The freedom of big insurance companies to exploit people by kicking them off the insurance plan when their medical bills may become expensive? It appears many of these protesters have become the pawns of big insurance companies and the rich who feel somehow threatened by any government intervention. In my opinion and probably most Canadians will agree that many in the U.S. have a different attitude toward helping their fellow man. In Canada I think we see it as more of our civic duty to make sure everybody is taken care of to a significant extent. The left of centre parties do go overboard on this with taxpayer's money, but by and large, I think Canadians have a generous spirit and do not begrudge their fellow citizens necessary health care services. I am hopeful the Conservative Party of Canada also believes in the public health care system we have in Canada and will always defend it.
This protest against the govt of the USA should send a message to the coup planners in Ottawa.
I saw some pictures of the event and it looked closer to 2 million than 200000. I don't follow much of their politics but after yesterday I would be worried if I was Democrat.This is only 6 months into jis tenure so imagine what the mid term elections will be like. Cheers.
OT, but Layton is in Edmonton for a caucus meeting. Could one of your sons sneak in and video it for canada wide consumption. LOL.
Wonderraven, perhaps you are right about that speech, but have you heard or read any of his earlier speeches on this, or what Pelosi/Reid want in it.
I think you need to educate yourself as to the facts of why the Americans are protesting Obamacare, wonderraven. Oh those big, bad insurance companies!
That said, I think if you did a little reserch you'd find that the Americans individuals are in fact quite generous.
Canada is very genrous with taxpayer (other people's) money. I hope you're not confusing the two.
Canadians personally donate annually 8.9 billion dollars to charity. Americans gave over 300 billion last year. The US population is about 10 times that of Canada, so by a per capita basis, the US citizens give more than 3 times that which we did. Sorry to burst your anti-AMerican bubble.
Your last statement is very interesting. You can 'defend' something all you like, but at the end of the day, health costs are increasing tremendously but nothing's changed. It's been said that the definition of insanity is doing something the same way and expecting a different result. This could be the definition of the Canadian health care system.
I am sorry to tell you, Hunter, that the media in the US is precisely identical to the media in Canada. Both are corporatist, suckling at the hind teat of party press releases, devoid of working journalists who'd go to the mat to dig for a story, and with scared little children afraid of "what might happen" acting as gatekeepers.
We Canadians love to dig at the CBC (and goodness knows there are reasons to) and there's been no shortage of criticism of CTV, Global, City, TVA, etc. but compared to ABC/CBS/CNN/Fox/MSNBC/NBC/NPR our news services are no worse, and oftimes better.
I know that for a lot of Conservative readers that will sound like heresy (especially lumping Fox into the mix) but there you are: actually analyse the networks and their coverage (just as you would for a "foreign country") and the pattern will become clear. Since I'd rather deal in reality than in myth, I'm willing to stand up and say my findings.
I saw the pictures of the protests on CTV news last night. Very impressive. You have to admire our American neighbours. When moved by an issue, they take action.
Wonderraven, The vast majority (better than 90%) of Americans are very happy with their healthcare so why should they go along with a socialist plan that puts it in jeopardy. And don't believe everything you hear from Obama or any other liberal propagandist on this issue. Whatever they manage to ram through congress is just the beginning of government interventions that will be all but irreversible once in place.
"...many in the U.S. have a different attitude toward helping their fellow man. In Canada I think we see it as more of our civic duty to make sure everybody is taken care of to a significant extent." That's a typical Canadian conceit. Americans donate far, far more to charity than Canadians do. And the Conservative government has little choice but to go along with our bureaucratic, heavily rationed, government healthcare monopoly. It's almost taboo to even talk about making substantive changes. What we can hope, though, is that the Conservatives encourage the provinces to be more innovative and less ideologically hide-bound in their approach.
Wonderraven, hate to brake it to you but you're a socialist... By what right are you able to demand that property should be taken from the producers and given to the non-producers? You speak of generosity but I don't think you have a clue what it means... Is it "generosity" when the state forces you, at the barrel of a gun, to give them the fruits of your labour such that they can spend it in ways that aren't in your best interest?
Give your friggin' head a shake...
Eskimo,
I didn't mean to leave the impression I don't think the Americans are generous. As individuals many of them give huge amounts for charitable causes.
My point was that many in the U.S. hold to a different philosophy than many in Canada. Some have an ideological or religious distrust of everything government does or wants to do. A few examples would be the number of U.S. presidents that have been assasinated, as well as Senator Robert Kennedy. There was also the Oklahoma bombing. There are many anti-government radicals. One well-known group was the KKK. Others would be groups who believe in the 9-11 conspiracy theory. You can probably think of others.
You said Canada is very generous with other people's money. Quite true. This is Canada's Achilles heel. I don't know what the answer is to solve the problem of growing costs for health care. How much of it is wasted and not being properly accounted for?
Also, it is easy to criticize government for the money they spend on services such as health care, but what would you do instead?
JR
You said "Wonderraven, The vast majority (better than 90%) of Americans are very happy with their healthcare so why should they go along with a socialist plan that puts it in jeopardy."
I doubt that 90% of the U.S. population is happy with their healthcare. Just ask the 46 million people who have no health care insurance just how happy they are. Ask the many people who have been dropped from health care insurance because their medical problems are becoming or about to become too expensive.
Governments in the western world already have a varying degrees of "socialism". Otherwise where would the highways come from which we drive on, the Canada pension plan, the Old Age Security Pension, Employment Insurance, and various other government services. I am not advocating socialism, but let's be realistic. Without a public health care system, a lot of people might not even be alive today. What we have is not a socialist system, but rather a mixture of free enterprise capitalism with a certain degree of public (socialized) services.
Richard,
You said "Wonderraven, hate to brake it to you but you're a socialist... By what right are you able to demand that property should be taken from the producers and given to the non-producers?"
If I am a socialist, I must be supporting the wrong party because I have been a member of the Reform, CA, and CPC since 1992. I am a strong supporter of our PM and Conservative gov't and work for the party through the riding association when I can.
I didn't say gov't should take money from producers to give it to non-producers. If you look at the real world, you will see that you personally use and enjoy many services the government provides courtesy of other taxpayers.
I am sure if you became unemployed you would be in the lineup for EI benefits or welfare payments like everyone else. When you reach age, are you going to apply for your Canada Pension and Old Age Security or would you say you are not going to take it because it is other people's money? We have to be realistic. In a democracy such as Canada's, it is the people who elect the government. So government is not stealing taxpayer's money. The theory of democracy is that they have a mandate from the people, and a legal right, to tax and provide the services. If you don't agree, you are free to speak against whatever you disagree with and even run to be an elected representative or support whatever party of organization you wish.
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